Is it possible that hostas can survive the harsh Texas climate of my backyard? The following report seems to suggest so. I’m thinking of experimenting with hostas in the S1 bed. The white-variegated hostas have particularly caught my eye. From the report, I’m looking at Francee, Albo-Marginata and Patriot…though it seems the Patriot has declined over the 2+ years of the trial. Patriot’s sport, Minuteman, might fare better. Based on the report, So Sweet is looking like a contender…if only it were a more verdant shade of green.
But then again, maybe caladiums are the safer, more reliable option. There are dozens of white-variegated cultivars, Jackie Suthers, White Wing, and Candidum for example, and because of its tropical background (like cannas and callas), stand a better chance of survival in the Texas heat.
I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.3.2. One of the first things I realized after going over the detailed upgrading instructions was that I had a sidebar widget login that disappeared after I upgraded WordPress. To get back to the old familiar WP login page, I had to type wp-login.php after my domain name in the browser url field to access the admin panel.
In cleaning up the plugins page, several plugins prompted me to upgrade them, which was a pleasant surprise for this version of WordPress. I will be test driving the site for a bit to clean up some problems (most notably Oceia bar) and figure out if anything broke due to the upgrade.
Of especial concern: my antivirus at work picked up a Downloader trojan in one of my browser caches. I don’t recall downloading any content today, (I’ve been browsing plant sites, WordPress, eBay, Wells Fargo, Texas Almanac and the Weather site) but it has me concerned enough to run an online virus scan of my server. Sadly Kaspersky no longer makes online scanning available: therefore, I’m using TrendMicro’s online scanner to check for bugs.
Once again the seed and plant catalogs are piling high in the mailbox. I’m inevitably reminded by the mild weather and the bare flower beds that it will soon be time for spring sowing and gardening. I plan to take off a week from work either in February or March to devote to the yards. I’m trying to look up weather reports to help me with planning this week off. I did check out the Texas Almanac website to learn about the last freeze dates. Average last freeze dates for Dallas/Collin counties is March 16. I’ve also scanned the Weather.com site to retrieve average monthly temperatures for my area.
Today at work, we were scratching our heads over why our 2K3 server wasn’t updating its IP to the DNS server. It led me to interesting reading at the Microsoft KB.
I’m thinking about installing aluminum edging in the back yard. Shopping online, I found reasonably priced aluminum lawn edging at YardProduct.com. I’d like to start with the side yard, and hopefully move on to the rear flower beds. Plans are to use asian jasmine ground cover for most of the area currently covered with a weed mat, while the side yard will feature variegated liriope as border/edging plants.